The Farmers Mart Jun-Jul 2018 - Issue 57 | Page 36
36 M H POSKITT LTD
JUN/JUL 2018 • farmers-mart.co.uk
‘Supermarkets have done no harm to
me. All they want is suppliers who give
them great value, whose produce turns
up on time and doesn’t let them down.
Quality, service and reliability put you
three parts of the way there. I won’t deny
that securing the best price is a challenge
but if you want to sell in volume in the UK
you have to play with the big retailers.
They need producers too. We work with
retailers all the time. It certainly isn’t a
‘them and us’ attitude in fact it’s they who
have taught me everything in business.
They focus on the one person who counts
– the customer.’
Poskitt’s Carrots is now a recognised
brand and liveried lorries travel all over
the country from Kellington, but it wasn’t
always that way even though carrots
have been a mainstay since Guy’s father’s
time.
‘Sadly my dad died when I was 8
years old and my mum Sonia ran the
farm business, she was the lynch pin in
everything we’ve done here. The farm
was a traditional arable enterprise for the
area growing wheat, barley, potatoes and
carrots across 500 acres. At that time my
father grew around 35 acres of carrots
for Lockwoods in the days when people
bought tinned carrots. He also traded on
the wholesale market. I left university
early and have been back here for the
past 35 years.’
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Today’s acreage runs to thousands with
cereals, potatoes, carrots, parsnips and
sugar beet as major crops. Guy feels that
any success he has had in growing the
business has come from his mum’s running
of the farm with a loyal farm manager when
he was younger and the brashness of his
own youth.
‘Customers ultimately determine your
success but my father passing away when
I was very young is sadly probably another
factor. When you’re young you’re brave,
you have lots of ideas and initiative and
never see problems. You’re never going to
grow any bad crops, things will never go
wrong, but when you get older you worry
more and are more restricted in ambitions.
I wasn’t pushed into running the farm but I
wanted to and even if I won the lottery I’d
still buy another farm.’
Trading in commodities was Guy’s carrot
to grow his business in the days prior to
Internet age.
‘I found the vegetable job exciting. I was
trading every day and cereal crop trading
never gave the same buzz. I can still tell you
the telephone numbers of most of my cus-
tomers in Leeds, York, Bradford, Castleford
and Hull. Carrot sales generated the income
to grow the arable enterprise.’
‘When the move to supermarkets started
I was involved with a group of three main
suppliers selling potatoes, cabbages and
carrots to ASDA and subsequently, due to
15:55:51
PARK FARM MACHINERY
www.parkfarmmachinery.com
Specialising in retailing and maintaining the full range of
Väderstad cultivation and drilling machinery as well as
Caterpillar telehandlers and loading shovels.
C
M
Väderstad main dealers and CAT dealers
Y
CM
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We sell (amongst others) rapid seed drill for corn, grass,
oil seeds, maize, peas and beans, carrier rollers, Rexius twin
pressures, rollers and the topdowns as well as the full range
of telescopic handlers and shovels.
CMY
K
Full range of New and used machinery always available
Park Farm Machinery Ltd
Lotherton Park Farm, Aberford,
Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS25 3ED
T: 0113 281 2150
F: 0113 281 2653
E: [email protected]